Seetaa no Monogatari Part 1

I've finally started my first seetaa (セーター) no monogatari (sweater story).  I decided to take a class at Yarn Story with Kim, who's teaching the basics of raglan sweaters.  I thought it'd be a good time to take the plunge since it'll be National Sweater Knitting Month (aka NaNoSweMo) in November and it would help to set goals for me (to stitch 50,000 stitches in the month of November).

So, what's a raglan sweater compared to other "kinds" of sweaters?  Well, raglan is really a type of sleeve on a sweater and is generally considered as a "starter" sweater because you can knit it in one piece (there's no seaming) and that you normally knit it from top-down (meaning that you can try it on as you work on it for better fit).  

Last week Saturday, we started Class #1.  Class #1 was all about: what raglan is, what you need to know to get started, determining what kind of raglan sweater you want to make, and determining what type of increase (there's 4 types Kim offered to us) you'd like to make for your raglan sleeve.  

To start off, we learned how to measure our "back of neck" measurement.  That was ... interesting ... The average woman's back of neck measurement is between 5.5" to 6".  And, scarily enough, that's exactly my neck size.  For those who know me, I'm not a very large (in height or width) person ... actually I'm very small and petite; and I also happen to have broad shoulders for someone my size thanks to my father's side (and possibly a combo of my mother's side too). :P  So, what does this mean?  It means that: 1) I'm not as small as I think I am (bummer! :( :P) and 2) basically, if I want a smaller collar, I use the smaller size; if I want a larger or wider collar, I use the larger size.

Next was determining what kind of sweater I wanted to make.  My classmates had an array of ideas of what they wanted to make.  One person wanted to make a basic boxy crewneck sweater; another wanted to make a complex sweater with a pattern or cables involved.  While I love cabled sweaters, I didn't think I was ready to embark on that endeavor right off the bat.  Plus, because I already have yarn in mind that I wanted to use (and only 7 skeins of it in addition to the fact that the yarn is no longer made), I didn't want to take a chance on making a cable sweater and not having enough yarn (cabling uses a lot of yarn).  So, I've decided to make a boat neck, 3/4 sleeved, basic stockinette stitch sweater.  It'll be a plain sweater but since it's going to be my first sweater, I'm not expecting it to be super awesome.  I'm expecting it to be a great learning experience and at the very least, wearable. :)  Oh, and here's the yarn label that I'll be using for this project:

And then we had homework which was ... swatching!  Our homework was to make a swatch using at least two (2) needle sizes and the swatch needed to have a gauge of 5 stitches per inch.  I was a bit overzealous and made a big swatch piece:

The bottom of my swatch started with my Chiaogoo US 8 needles in which I created a border and started practicing what Kim calls her Type "A" increase (which is placing a yarnover on either side of my seam stitch (the stitch that creates the "shape" of the shoulder)).  I then found an interesting chevron pattern that I thought I might give a go at it.  Then after a few rows, I realized I hated it. :(  I hated the fact that 1) it wasn't coming out to the way the I thought the chevron would look and 2) there were long pieces of yarn that I know would get caught on something (and as such would irk me to no end knowing that my sweater could get caught and possibly ripped because of it).  So I gave up on that idea and just switch back to the basic stockinette stitch.  After about an inch of this, I measured my gauge and found that I had 4.5 stitches per inch.  

So, I simply finished the Type "A" increase and switched needle sizes to my Chiaogoo US 7 needles.  Since I was done with Type "A", I moved onto the Type "B" increase (which is to knit 1, yarnover, and knit 1 (again) into the seam stitch).  After about making a little over an inch of the Type "B" increase, I measured for gauge and came out to 5 stitches per inch! :) *Yay* :)  Then since I was making gauge, I decided to make this, my "swatch" square and moved onto the Type "C" increase (which is to make 1 on either side of the seam stitch).

Since Kim warned me that while I'm knitting with a polyester yarn, it won't shrink but, it might "relax" (aka get bigger).  So, being the anal person I am, I finished up the Type "C" increase using the size 7 needles.  Then switched to my Chiaogoo US 6 needles to see what gauge I would get with those.  With my size 6 needles, I started the last increase type, Type "D" (which is to knit 1 then knit 1 through the back loop onto the stitch on either side of the seam stitch) and found (oddly enough) that I got the same gauge as I did with the size 7 needles (5 stitches per inch).  

Now, I'm thinking that I should continue my swatch and try using my Chiaogoo US 5 needles just to see if my gauge will get smaller (or not). :P  What do you think?  Is it a bit of overkill?  After all, I figure better to swatch like crazy now rather than find out later that I should've used a smaller needle (swatch regrets) .... Well, my next class isn't until Saturday so, I've got some time to think about it.  I just gotta wash it now ... :P ... I'm think (this swatch took up a lot of my ball already), that I might wash this baby while still on the cable so that once Kim helps me to decide which size I should go with, I can unravel it and re-use the yarn. :D

And, as for the type of increase I'll be doing, I'm thinking I like the Type "D" one ... it's the one with the least amount of holes, seems to give the shoulders more structure than the others, and more importantly (for a seamless sweater), it "hides" the shoulder seam the most.

Can't wait for my next class! :)